Abstract [en]

Emerging technologies, e.g. web services and open sourcesoftware, are rapidly adopted in IT solutions, which are based onnew business logics such as SOA and SaaS. But is industry readyto utilise these solutions? The aim with this paper is to describecurrent IT practices within maintenance in Swedish industry, andto outline the future possible developments. The study is formedas a web-based questionnaire survey addressed to plants wherethe maintenance is performed in-house. 71 responses werereceived of 196 questionnaires sent.We find that the main part of the participants of this studyrepresents organisations that traditionally would be characterisedas mature regarding IT use. The IT practices are characterised byhigh use of business specific IT solutions, low use of companywide IT solutions and low IT intensity. The ownership of IT is tohigh extent tied to the maintenance function and the client-serverarchitecture is dominating. The findings imply that the focus of ITis for vertical (functional) support rather than horizontal ornetwork support, and a decentralised IT governance form.